Strategy calls enables Deletraz to deny Nissany Paul Ricard win

A superior strategy from Louis Deletraz enabled the Swiss driver to secure his second victory of the season and deny long time race leader Roy Nissany his first.

Deletraz was running third early in the race behind Nissany and Egor Orudzhev, but his Fortec Motorsports team decided to bring him in for his mandatory pit stop as early as lap eight, and with the duo at the front pitting much later during the pit stop window, it was Deletraz who took over the lead.

Lotus driver Nissany attempted to close down the gap over the closing laps but ran out of time, finishing 2.878 seconds shy for his second runners-up spot of probably his best weekend of his Formula V8 3.5 series career to date.

Arden Motorsport’s Orudzhev pitted the lap before Nissany but was unable to remain with the Israeli driver in the closing stages, finishing 6.844 seconds behind the driver he battled hard with for the opening race win on Saturday.

Aurélien Panis secured fourth, also for Arden, but was almost four seconds away from his team-mate, while Rene Binder was on the tail of Panis in fifth in the second Lotus.

It was a quiet afternoon for championship leader Tom Dillmann, who after starting eighth could only climb to sixth, with the AVF driver never truly in contention for any better result than he managed.

It was a disappointing day for SMP Racing, who after seeing Matevos Isaakyan qualify inside the top ten left the track pointless, the Russian losing lots of time in the pits due to a slow pit stop, while team-mate Matthieu Vaxiviere retired with just a handful of laps remaining while running outside of the top ten.